‘ROMA’, ‘Buster Scruggs’, and ‘Bird Box’ to Premiere In U.S. Theaters Before Hitting Netfix!!!

Good news for any of you fine folks who like watchin’ gorgeous flicks on a big old screen. In a shift away from Netflix’s previous anti-theatrical run stance, the streaming service announced that three of its biggest awards contenders, original films Roma, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, and Bird Box will premiere exclusively in theaters before hitting the stream-screen.

“There’s been an overwhelming response to all of our films this festival season, including ‘Outlaw King,’ which will be in theaters and on Netflix next week, and this plan is building on that momentum. Netflix’s priority is our members and our filmmakers, and we are constantly innovating to serve them,” Netflix’s film chief Scott Stuber told Variety.

Alfonso Cuarón‘s black-and-white drama Roma is getting the longest theatrical run, playing in select theaters in Mexico, New York, and Los Angeles beginning November 21 before it hits Netflix on December 14. The film, Cuarón’s first since the multi-Oscar-winning Gravity in 2013, is pretty much a lock for several Academy nominees this year. In his review, Collider’s own Adam Chitwood hailed the drama as “impeccable film-making on a grand scale.”

The journey of the Coen Brothers‘ Ballad of Buster Scruggs to this moment has been a wild one; the anthology Western film was originally announced as the directing duo’s first foray into television, before ultimately morphing into a feature length film at Netflix. Buster Scruggs—which has been hit with lukewarm-ish mixed reviews so far—will receive a limited, one-week theatrical run starting November 8 before expanding globally in select US and European cities and premiering on Netflix on November 16.

Director Susanne Bier‘s Bird Box—a post-apocalyptic survival starring Sandra Bullock, based on the novel by Josh Malerman—will get a theatrical run in New York, London, San Francisco, and Los Angeles starting December 13 before hitting Netflix on December 21.